UNGA resolution asks Israel for nuclear transparency

An aerial image of Israel’s Dimona nuclear facility in the Negev desert in the south of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (file photo)

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The UN General Assembly passes a resolution, calling on the Israeli regime to quickly open its nuclear program to inspection and join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) “without further delay.”
The 193-member General Assembly on Monday passed the resolution 174 to six with six abstentions, urging Tel Aviv to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to have access to its nuclear facilities.
Only the US, Canada, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau voted against the resolution that reflects international concern about suspicious Israeli nuclear activities.
Israel, the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, is widely known to have between 200 and 400 nuclear warheads.
The Israeli regime rejects all the regulatory international nuclear agreements -- the NPT in particular -- and refuses to allow its nuclear facilities to come under international regulatory inspections.
The General Assembly also supported a postponed high-level conference in Helsinki on banning nuclear weapons in the Middle East, which on November 23, the US said was not to take place on schedule in December due to, what it called, the special conditions in the Middle East.
Just before Monday’s vote, Iranian diplomat Khodadad Seifi told the assembly “the truth is that the Israeli regime is the only party, which rejected to conditions for a conference.” He called for “strong pressure on that regime to participate in the conference without any preconditions.”
Syrian diplomat Abdullah Hallak voiced his country’s anger at the cancellation of the conference, saying the meeting was not going to take place because of “the whim of just one party, a party with nuclear warheads.”
“We call on the international community to put pressure on Israel to accept the NPT, get rid of its arsenal and delivery systems in order to allow for peace and stability in our region,” he said.
DB/HN